"I've been told by two pack members today that Richard is out of control, damn near suicidal. That he's pulled his self-hatred, his loathing of his beast, and my rejection, down around his ears. I won't let him die because I chose someone else. In a few months when he's healthier, then I'll step down. I'll let him take care of himself, but not right now."
"I'll pass the word," Gwen said.
"You do that."
"You're going to try and bring out the leopards tonight, aren't you?" Sylvie said.
I kept seeing the bruises on Vivian's body. The pleading in her eyes. "They expected me to save them, and I didn't."
"You didn't know," Gwen said.
"I know now," I said.
"You can't save everyone," Sylvie said.
"Everyone needs a hobby." I started to walk out again, but Gwen called me back.
I turned in the doorway.
"Tell her the rest," Gwen said softly.
Sylvie wouldn't look at me. She spoke staring down at the sheet. "When Vivian refused to hurt me, they called in Liv." She looked up, tears glittering in her eyes. "She used things on me. Did things to me." Sylvie covered her face with her hands and rolled onto her side, crying.
Gwen met my eyes. The look on her face was frightening in its hatred. "You need to know who to kill."
I nodded. "She won't leave St. Louis alive."
"And the other one? The council member's son?" Gwen asked.
"Him either," I said.
"Promise it," she said.
"I already have," I said. I walked out then, searching for a phone. I wanted to talk to Jean-Claude before I did anything. Jean-Claude had taken everyone else to my house. They were boarding up the basement windows so that the vamps could be tucked safely away before dawn. The Traveler had refused to let them take their coffins. Besides, have you ever tried to rent a truck on a weekend after midnight?
What was I going to do about the wereleopards? Damned if I knew.
22
Jean-Claude's voice floated over the phone, my phone, my house. He'd never been there before. "What has happened, ma petite? Jason made it sound urgent."
I told him about the wereleopards.
He was quiet for so long. I had to say something. "Talk to me, Jean-Claude."
"Are you actually thinking of endangering us all for the sake of two people, one of whom you have never met before, and the other who you once described as a waste of skin?"
"I can't leave them there if they expected me to help them."
"Ma petite, ma petite, you have a sense of noblesse obligethat does you credit. But we cannot save them. Tomorrow evening the council will come for us, and we may not even be able to save ourselves."
"Are they here to kill us?"
"Padma would kill us if he could. He is the weakest of the council. and I think he fears us."
"The Traveler's the one we have to convince." I said.
"No, ma petite, the council are seven in number, always an odd number so that a vote may settle a question. Padma and the Traveler will vote against one another, this is true. It has been true for centuries. But Yvette is here to vote in the place of her lord, Morte d'Amour. She hates Padma but she may hate me more. For that matter, Balthasar could persuade the Traveler against us, and we are lost."